Fragmented gaming recently, but finished and loved Fable III

I’ve been pretty busy recently, so have only had very fragmented gaming time. I did finish Fable III, however and really enjoyed it. The game was good, the voice acting superb, and the sense of humor throughout was terrific.

Fable III started off pretty easily, with baddies almost never hurting you as you blast them with fire or guns or your hammer. Later on, though, they get faster and tougher and make the fights very challenging. The combat is very good, however, allowing you to quickly switch between magic, melee weapons (swords and hammers), and guns (rifles and pistols). Eventually, you can combine 2 types of magic to make nifty and powerful effects, which is a fun thing to try out.

The characters in the game are great, but having John Cleese as your butler and trusted advisor totally rocks. The other voice acting is also terrific and includes many famous stars. The biggest problem with the game, in my opinion, is the constant chatter of the NPCs surrounding you, especially the store clerks. They are always yammering on about something or other, and what they yammer about may change based on whether you buy the store or do other things. It’s a nifty and dynamic scheme, but is a bit annoying.

To a large extent, Fable III is a dumbed down Fable II, but that doesn’t really hurt it. Much of it is more streamlined than Fable II, and that makes it a little friendlier. The ability to zap back to your “sanctuary” at any point to change clothes or weapons is pretty nifty, as is the ability to buy and manage houses and repairs simply from the maps.

“Houses and repairs, you say? I thought this was an action-ish RPG?” Indeed it is, but the way to get ahead is to invest in houses and stores so you can make gobs of money, which you will eventually need, but I won’t spoil anything by saying why. So, yes, buy every property you can afford and you will get rent coming in every 5 minutes.

The game is not for kids, as it involves unsafe sex, STDs, pregnancy, and, apparently, orgies, though I managed to miss that. None of the above are graphic, however, so if your spouse walks in, you will only be embarrassed by the sound, not imagery.

The game was great, but the ending lacked epic-ness. The final boss fight, and the path leading to it, were pretty trivial and almost boring. Perhaps the devs were told “SHIP IT!” and just found a quick way to wrap it up. But the ending is no worse than so many other games, so I won’t ding it too badly for that.

So get Fable III and play it. It goes on sale on Steam occasionally, so get it there or on XBOX 360.